Films That Shaped the Horror Genre

Love this overview of films that shaped the horror genre from Wayfaring Walrus. It’s an excellent list of deep pulls, classics, and movies I love to fight over, so feel free to voice agreements/disagreements and your own picks for influential films in the comments here. Enjoy, and happy Monday, darlings!

From the dawn of time, we have loved the thrill of being scared for some reason. This pre-dates cinema and even books. I’m sure some neanderthals actively went in search of things that had the capacity and willingness to straight-up murder them.

However, rather than look at the millions of different ways that horror has influenced society, I’ll look purely at the film industry, and try to pick out one influential film for each decade since the Lumiere brothers decided that someday, someone needed to make Hostel 1, 2 and 3, to entertain the masses.

1900s – Electrocuting an Elephant (Thomas Edison, 1903).

Much like Ronseal, it does exactly what it says on the tin. It’s not a horror but it’s one of the more traumatic on this list to watch. I won’t link it here as it’s inhumane and I don’t agree with it for one second.